The present invention relates to a technique of performing printing through a network.
In general companies and public offices, multiple bases, each having a local area network (LAN) therein, are generally connected to each other through a network. In many cases, a network printer that receives a print request through the network and performs printing is connected to the base LAN.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2006-48229 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a system in which a server for managing printers provided for each base is used to efficiently utilize the printers. In the system, when a printer to be used for printing in the base is registered, the following setting assistance is applied to a client terminal device connected to the LAN at the base.
The client terminal device requests the printer management server to send a list of printers which can be used in the base.
The printer management server searches for printers provided in the base, obtains printer candidates, and sends the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the printer candidates to the client terminal device.
When a user views the sent IP addresses of the printer candidates and selects one printer, the client terminal device sends the IP address of the selected printer to the printer management server.
The printer management server sends a printer driver and its setting information which are required to use the selected printer, to the client terminal device.
Upon reception of the printer driver and the setting information, the client terminal device installs a driver program in itself.
In Patent Document 1 also, it is described that the client terminal device uninstalls the installed driver program when the client terminal device is turned off.
In Patent Document 1 also, it is described that the IP address of the client terminal device is used as information which is used when the printer management server searches for the printers. In an example described, when an IP address is assigned by a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), for example, a group is specified to define a range in which the IP address is assigned, and a printer list corresponding to the group is searched.
By using the IP address and a DHCP group, the printer management server can estimate a connection position of the client terminal device and appropriately select a printer.
The invention described in Patent Document 1 allows the user to easily set and use a printer installed in a base where the user is temporarily staying on a business trip, for example.